Bankman-Fried Faces New Setback After Court Rejects Testimonies From 7 Expert Witnesses

Sam Bankmnan-Fried, the crypto mogul who is at the center of an unrelenting storm of his own doing, faced another setback this week after a judge rejected all the witnesses his defense lawyers proposed to put on the stand.

District Judge Lewis Kaplan sided with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in its motion to block all of the witnesses Bankman-Fried's camp wanted to put in the stand during his trial in October.

The defense believed the expert witnesses would provide crucial information about the procedures of FTX, a multi-billion dollar crypto business once but filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last November.

Bankman-Fried's team wanted to call seven people, including Thomas Bishop and Joseph Pimbley from two different consulting firms; Lawrence Akka, a British barrister; Andrew Di Wu, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan; Bradley Smith, a law professor at Capital University Law School and Brian Kim, a data analytics and forensics expert.

Judge Kaplan denied the testimonies of all the expert witnesses Bankman-Fried proposed to the court citing several reasons, including the general irrelevance of planned testimony and the shortcomings in each individual's stated opinions.

Despite the rejection of the seven expert witnesses from Bankman-Fried's camp, Judge Kaplan said the defense could call Bishop or Kim to respond to the prosecution's witness Peter Easton, or an FBI agent.

However, the witnesses should file a complete Rule 16 disclosure three days before the date of the appearance in court as a witness, although the DOJ can still object to this if it happens.

"Defendant's motion to exclude testimony from Mr. Peter Easton (Dkt 232) is denied. Although the defendant's motion seeks the total exclusion of Mr. Easton's testimony, his objections, all of which are meritless or moot, are significantly more narrow. Mr. Easton appropriately may testify about customer fiat deposits as described in his Rule 16 disclosure and the government's papers.Mr. Easton's anticipated testimony is the product of specialized knowledge and reliable methodology and does not constitute improper narration. Finally, Mr. Easton is permitted to 'rely on data that [he] did not personally collect.' Defendant's motion is denied in its entirety," the judge's ruling read.

Bankman-Fried is currently in jail after his bail was revoked because of alleged witness tampering. He has repeatedly asked the court to grant him temporary freedom so he could prepare for his trial but all of them were denied.

The crypto mogul's first criminal trial is scheduled on Oct. 3.